


it takes some time to get it right

by Rainbowcat



Category: Maleficent (2014)
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Rare Pairings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-08
Updated: 2016-07-08
Packaged: 2018-07-22 07:55:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,281
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7426531
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rainbowcat/pseuds/Rainbowcat
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“These?” Aurora seemed interested. She reached out and touched the ragged scars over his chest. Diaval’s thoughts briefly faltered. “I simply assumed they were a part of you. They’re pretty. What happened?”</p><p>“People don’t like ravens,” Diaval explained delicately. “People don’t like <i>me</i>.”</p>
            </blockquote>





	it takes some time to get it right

**Author's Note:**

> Title from Wasting My Young Years by London Grammar.

The best part about Aurora was the food. 

When the little princess became old enough to walk, she brought Diaval morsels from the pantry, a crumb of bread or a kernel of corn or a crust of cheese. Diaval ate from her hand. The look on his mistress’s face if she knew - well, of course she knew.

“You’ll get fat,” Maleficent said, somewhere between disgust and amusement.

“ _You_ never feed me like that,” Diaval lamented. 

Rather disgust, now. “Pull yourself together. You are a man. Act like one.”

“And yet,” Diaval said with a half-grin as Maleficent waved her fingers, sending him flying once more.

***

Aurora would pull at his feathers. Gently, most of the time. Diaval cawed in equal parts encouragement and reproach. This was all he had for friendship: a disgraced fairy generally on her way to madness, and a charming but physically overactive toddler bent on giving Diaval frequent heart attacks. Not that he was complaining.

“No need to worry about my weight, mistress,” Diaval reported one evening, wiping his forehead on his sleeve. Maleficent rolled her eyes. “Aurora is relentless. I have been in perpetual motion since dawn.”

“Well,” Maleficent said, “I knew the beastie was good for something.”

***

There was no reason to be nervous about meeting Aurora as a man. If she had accepted him in his true form, then letting her see him as a human should have been easy.

“But I _was_ nervous,” Diaval confessed later. They were sitting with their bare feet in a pond. Pixies were braiding Aurora’s hair. Pixies were always braiding Aurora’s hair.

“Why?” Such concern from someone so young. 

“Look at me,” Diaval said with a wry smile. He ran an index along his temple. “I’m a marked man. Bird.”

“These?” Aurora seemed interested. She reached out and touched the ragged scars over his chest. Diaval’s thoughts briefly faltered. “I simply assumed they were a part of you. They’re pretty. What happened?”

“People don’t like ravens,” Diaval explained delicately. “People don’t like _me_.” 

“But why not?” Aurora leaned closer.

Diaval swirled the water with his foot. It was warm and pleasant and inviting. “Bad omen. But good meat if you’re a hungry farmer.”

“My fairy godmother likes you. I like you.” 

He slanted another smile at her. “I’m luckier than most.”

“You follow her everywhere,” Aurora said. It was almost a question.

“And I do it gladly.” Diaval patted her knee. “I owe your fairy godmother my life. Never forget those who have done you a great service, and repay them in kind.”

They fell into an amiable silence. Unsurprisingly, it did not last.

“So are you a raven, then?” Aurora asked. “Or a man?”

“Yes,” Diaval said. “On a bad day, I’m a wolf.” His own joke pleased him.

“You are the only raven-man?”

“To my knowledge,” Diaval said. “Though most of the ravens I meet don’t believe me when I say I am sometimes human.”

This made Aurora laugh. “I wish there were more of you,” she said, becoming serious. “I wish you had other friends to play with.”

“Why would I, when I have the two loveliest people in the world to keep me company?” Diaval stood and extended his hand to Aurora. She took it and pulled herself up. “Come. It’s time for you to run along home to the unfortunate fools who raise you.”

***

Unifying the two kingdoms had done wonders for Maleficent’s image, but to Diaval, she was hardly changed.

“This fool,” she complained one night as they shared an apple, watching Aurora and Phillip from afar. “It’s a miracle he stays upright on his horse.”

“I know,” Diaval agreed darkly.

“He’s still a babe in arms. He’s a poor prince and will make for a poorer king,” Maleficent continued.

“I _know_ ,” Diaval assured her.

“I am honestly surprised she continues their association. There’s more wonder in a single leaf of the Moorian forest than there is in his entire soul, this, this-”

“-low-life, no-good, prepubescent piece of driftwood,” Diaval finished for her.

Maleficent finally looked up at him. Her red lips formed an ‘O.’

Diaval ducked his head.

“I didn’t know,” she said softly.

“I’m so sorry,” he said with sincerity. “I won’t – er, if you forbid me, then I’ll stay away, of course-”

Maleficent interrupted him with a snort. “Forbid? I have no right to make the girl’s choices for her. Nor do you. Why do you suppose we’re crouching in a wood, spying from a distance instead of pushing the boy down a waterfall?”

“Fair enough,” Diaval conceded.

“For how long?” she asked gently.

He shrugged. The truth cost him. “Months? Years. Hard to say.”

“Talk to her,” Maleficent said, her voice firming.

“You know I can’t – the boy-”

She laughed. “Aurora’s brilliance will ultimately frighten him, I think. Men are simple creatures. He will seek an easier life.”

“I’m right here,” Diaval said, affronted.

Maleficent flashed wicked eyes at him. “You are not a man.”

“But you always said-” Diaval protested, confused, and she laughed again.

***

His mistress’s prediction came true within weeks.

Diaval spent much time standing about awkwardly while Maleficent cradled Aurora’s head and stroked her hair and murmured soothing words over the young queen’s heartfelt sobs. Maleficent took pity on him and allowed him his wings so that Diaval could soar about, releasing pent-up nervous energy. He didn’t follow Phillip to where he had fled, though it pained him dearly to refrain from finding the child and pecking his eyes out.

Aurora healed. Diaval accompanied her on nighttime walks, frequently pausing as she greeted her doting subjects, big and small. He listened as she expounded on the politics of reunification, the sometimes-dry, sometimes-dramatic process of joining the Moors with its neighbor. He listened as she told stories of Maleficent. He listened hardest as she talked about her father, grappling with feelings far too large for anyone so young and otherwise untroubled. Her bright face darkened when she spoke of war and reparations, love and loss. Diaval did his best to restore her smile, offering up stories of his youth and travels until both of them were clutching their sides from laughter.

It was on one such walk that Diaval confessed. A full moon was beaming down on them, a warm breeze stirring Aurora’s golden hair. In the distance, he could just glimpse the lights of the castle.

“I love you,” Diaval said.

“I love you too,” Aurora replied instantly, beaming.

He smiled a little sadly. “I meant…”

Aurora was no longer a child; she had long since shed the belief that anyone was born scarred. So when she looked up at his face, she understood.

They continued their walk. Diaval’s blood was rushing in his ears.

“That night when-” Aurora paused to choose her words, “-when my curse was lifted. Why didn’t you kiss me?”

Diaval blinked; it was not a question he had expected. He took his time answering. “What your fairy godmother feels for you,” he said cautiously, “is as pure a love as you can find anywhere in our newly unified kingdom.”

“And your feelings?” Aurora prompted.

Diaval thought. “Are complex.”

“They don’t have to be.” Aurora smiled, sunny and innocent.

“Very true,” Diaval agreed with a sigh.

Aurora stopped. She turned to look at him. With the gentleness that had always befitted her soul, she took his face in her hands and kissed him, softly, sweetly.

Time passed. Leaves stirred in the wind. When Aurora pulled back, the moon was still at its peak in the night sky, and Diaval’s heart was thudding.

“That didn’t help,” he said finally.

Aurora just laughed, twining their fingers together and pulling him onwards, onwards.


End file.
